Some people learn from progression yes, and some people have been in Bronze for 5 years. If they are happy in Bronze, no problem, but I wouldn’t call that learning and progressing…
It isn’t ignorant at all. It’s just that I enjoy being challenged by players that are better than me, because it forces me to react quicker, aim better, hide more = get better at the game. And some people imagine smurfs in every single one of their games.
I have played extensively in Bronze/Silver/Gold level and I can count on one hand the numbers of times i’ve been ‘smoked by someone 1-2k sr higher’.
I know I know - “your experience isn’t everyones experience” blah blah blah, the thing is, all our experiences ARE the same, same game same servers. So why do I never see smurfs and some people see 2/3 EVERY game?
Wrong. There’s a reason why he have leagues at sports. No one ever learned anything on the long term from getting stomped on by someone who shouldn’t even be competing with him in the first place.
I’m not in Bronze nor did I complain about smurfing every game. My original answer was regarding the OPs rant about smurfing. You can’t expect someone to learn playing against someone 1 to 2k higher ego than them and rolling them. Beyond that, I implied GM widow smurfs are not fun to play against. Read thoroughly please.
I would expect someone being shot at by a GM Widow to ‘learn’ to not stand in the open lol. Just because they are good at aiming doesn’t eliminate walls.
You will be told a lot of nonsense from others like, they aren’t smurfing, you should just learn from it etc. Not understanding that the way to learn is by having a gradual increase in challenges, so that it is currently outside of your skill but achievable. This is the method we use for teaching when it comes to everything. A chance occurance once in a rare while to see what i higher elo player is able to do can be useful, but not with this frequency.
There is a very clear business in buying accounts having bots (ai) 6-stack and throw games untill bronze and them selling them to people who want to smurf in bronze, this is very odd to me personally idont get it, but it is a thing. And Blizzard has made it very clear that they prioritize this increase in profits over the stability and fun in their game.
I have luckily not been in this position, i started out in 3.2k and gone up from there, so personally smurfs have not been an issue. but i know people who are in the lower elos and know it is a rampant issue. So although no one else on the forums will show you much empathy, i agree that it does suck, and its an annoying thing to have to deal with, not everyone has the time to waste 1-2 hours a day on games that aren’t “playable”.
Do not run in a straight line if an enemy has a Widow (irregardless whether or not they are a Smurf). Use natural cover. I understand that that is something Bronze people have troubles grasping but it does help a lot.
Depending on what map you are playing on, a Widow usually always (again Smurf or not, and most Smurfs in Bronze are not OWL as much as you ppl like to think so) take the same spot. I sincerely doubt that any Bronze player starts their match thinking about stuff like that. “What map am I playing on, will the enemy run Widow? If so, where she will most likely position?” etc. etc. No one in Bronze thinks about that stuff ever and they autopilot 90% of the time.
A Genji needs to use resources to close the distance. No one in Bronze pays attention to enemy cooldowns or punish anyone for anything. And also there is nothing stopping you to learn one shot combos on Genji as well and to do the same to the enemy.
But sure whine about Smurfs. The only reason why Smurfs look so good in low elos is because everyone gives up right off the bat and actually hands them the win by playing stupid. Plus it does not require a lot of effort to kill someone who is mindlessly going in alone. You do not even have to be in the enemy VC to know when they start to tilt and blame everyone else. You see it in their gameplay. Trying to 1vs6 because “my team is trash.” Even a Gold player would look like a God in such games.
I had a D.Va an hour ago who decided to stand still because the enemy had a low lvl Widow on their team. So basically the D.Va was trying I dunno, to make some sort of a statement by not playing the game?
Bronze ppl run in a straight line the whole game, do not know their abilities, fail to use them correctly, have no idea who is playing whom, never press Tab, go in 1vs6.
It is not hard to farm them as a Gold player let alone as someone higher.
look you’re just complainig about the fact that your enemies are better then you, even if you’re gonna have smurf or not its not gonna change the fact that you’re not gonna rank up cause your skill rate is always gonna stay on it’s ratio unless you’re gonna make a change and get better at the game, crying about the fact that the enemies are better isn’t going to help about that
There is a lot of smurfs in plat on role que. I started playing open que and I didn’t get a single smurf, sure there were skilled players but none that were obvious smurfs. It was also a lot more chill than roll que.
You are a sensible person. But surely you’ve encountered bullies in life… They enjoy humiliating others, beginners in this case. That’s what it’s really all about in many cases. Other times, they just hit a plateau and feel people at their main account level are getting better and they aren’t. So they use the alt account just to feel good again… The problem is, it really stinks for actual beginners…
Instead of just arguing with you, I’ll start by validating your point. Yes, when you play anything against others that are better than you, you can learn from it. In many cases, it’s the fastest way to get good at a game, sport, whatever it is.
That being said, it’s not that simple and it’s not that black and white. You don’t either learn from it and get good because you’re being positive, or not learn from it because you’re being negative. That’s a nice and neat philosophy, simple and clean and comfortable and easy to follow. But it’s not reality in all situations.
If you have an 11 year old kid that is tryin to learn how to play basketball and he’s never even played before, you don’t throw him onto the court with a few other beginners just like him and then a slew of NBA basketball players, all of which are just dominating the hell out of the beginners, often being toxic in communications and then taunting them after the game saying it was ez. No one learns anything. No one gets better.
The difference between a bronze player and a Diamond in this game is drastic. In fact, the difference between a bronze just beginning and an upper level bronze in this game is drastic. Trust me, I know, I’m an actual noob. I’ve been playing 4 months or so and it’s insane how much better I am now than I was 2 months ago.
You say a “real player kills the smurfs”… What? What’s a “real player”? Someone who is already good? Someone who has more mechanical skill and more experience gaming? Look, you suck at something, I guarantee it. I don’t know what it is, but I’m very sure there is something you absolutely suck at. You have to put yourself into the shoes of an ACTUAL beginner trying to play something against semi-pros. If you played Chess for 3-4 months, how do you think you’d do against some of the world’s top Chess players? Just as good as I would… You would literally never win. Never. Not a single time. Not even close. Every single match would be a total joke. If someone said “a real Chess player would just check mate the semi-pro” you would tell that person they are an idiot.
This was a simple statement about the mentality of approaching a difficult situation wanting to learn, get better, and ‘kill the smurf’.
I’m not denying smurfs exist and i’m not denying it ‘would’ be annoying, I say would be because I rarely ever see them… And I cannot understand why my experience is so drastically different to others.
My main issue is when people make threads about how smurfs are a plague and ruining every single one of their games… It just isn’t true. I got called a smurf the other day in silver… I’ve been in silver DPS for a long time lol.
My main sentiment is stop making excuses (not you directly). Smurfs aren’t holding people back, the other 95% of peoples games with no smurfs should be sufficient to climb if you are good enough to do so…
Good to know you’re not here to argue, but to be insulting is fine I guess?
Well, dunno how high - ranked your friends are, or used to be compared to you and either way, you don’t know how fast you would have improved if it weren’t for them (and whether or not you supposedly improved due to the tips they gave you or from playing with them).
At the end of the day, Smurfing is inexcusable, damaging to both the game as a whole and payers’ individual skill curves. There’s a reason why ranks exist and why, for an environment to be classified as “Competitive” in the first place, the contestants need to be around the same skill level.
